Over the weekend I went for a hike along the beach; not planning to do all this. But when I happened upon a mulefat branch brought in by the tide suitable for a bowdrill spindle along with a good piece of willow root for a hearth, I knew I could find everything else needed. Not a proper place for a fire, I lit one punky driftwood stick (firebrands) after another I picked up while hiking back to my car about two miles away. I got back with sticks to spare. Magical.

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A belated for this accomplishment! I thought I had commented on it, but apparently not. Very cool to hear your got a two mile range out of that ember, too!

That is a beautiful set..
How did you go about making that bearing stone?

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Thanks. It’s a naturally shaped beach pebble. I made the dimple primitively while at the beach using a hand held flake of chert, a harder stone. I wonder if NWPrimate has the same kind of stones on his beach. A video would be great.

It’s a naturally shaped beach pebble. I made the dimple primitively while at the beach using a hand held flake of chert, a harder stone. I wonder if NWPrimate has the same kind of stones on his beach. A video would be great.

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I might, but I'm pretty lazy so I've always just let nature do the work on them before I get there.

Thanks. It’s a naturally shaped beach pebble. I made the dimple primitively while at the beach using a hand held flake of chert, a harder stone. I wonder if NWPrimate has the same kind of stones on his beach. A video would be great.

Yesterday was my first time trying to use chaga for fire. Several members have sent me pieces of it over the years, so I can’t be sure who sent this chunk (probably @Coryphene ?) but it has been sitting in my house for years.

I have seen videos where people like @mountain joe drill directly into a piece and the ember forms inside of the divot, so I thought I would give that a shot. Being a new material for me, I wanted to remove the variable of moisture so I brought some pre-dried hand drill spindles with me.

I really expected this to be easy. I tried both red elderberry and burdock and got lots of good smoke and dust, but nothing stayed smoldering. Not being familiar with the material, I started out with very light pressure expecting the spindle to dig in right away, but I actually had the opposite problem. Even with as much pressure as I could muster, it barely removed any material from the hearth.

I didn’t quite go Full Badey; but I came close; wrecking my hands again trying to make this work.

I didn’t remember to take an after-photo, but here’s a video screenshot of the divot and pile after I finished with the elderberry and made my first attempt with burdock.

When I got home, I dug out an old alder bow drill spindle to see if I would learn anything by bow drilling into it. I drilled and drilled; making lots of dust that appeared to be primarily composed of alder.

I tried everything from light pressure, to as much downward force as I could apply; varying speed at the same time and didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. The divot would smoke for fifteen or twenty seconds, but never appeared to be close to glowing.

Finally after fifteen minutes of doing my best, a section of smoldering dust fell off of the rim, held together and started glowing.

I used the little bitty ember to get the piece smoldering, but it didn't transfer nearly as easy as I would have expected. Once it got going, it smoldered away happily for fifteen minutes before I snuffed it out with some foil.

Did I somehow end up with the world’s hardest piece of chaga? If anyone has any insight or advice, I would appreciate it.

Yesterday was my first time trying to use chaga for fire. Several members have sent me pieces of it over the years, so I can’t be sure who sent this chunk (probably @Coryphene ?) but it has been sitting in my house for years.

I have seen videos where people like @mountain joe drill directly into a piece and the ember forms inside of the divot, so I thought I would give that a shot. Being a new material for me, I wanted to remove the variable of moisture so I brought some pre-dried hand drill spindles with me.

I really expected this to be easy. I tried both red elderberry and burdock and got lots of good smoke and dust, but nothing stayed smoldering. Not being familiar with the material, I started out with very light pressure expecting the spindle to dig in right away, but I actually had the opposite problem. Even with as much pressure as I could muster, it barely removed any material from the hearth.

I didn’t quite go Full Badey; but I came close; wrecking my hands again trying to make this work.

I didn’t remember to take an after-photo, but here’s a video screenshot of the divot and pile after I finished with the elderberry and made my first attempt with burdock.

When I got home, I dug out an old alder bow drill spindle to see if I would learn anything by bow drilling into it. I drilled and drilled; making lots of dust that appeared to be primarily composed of alder.

I tried everything from light pressure, to as much downward force as I could apply; varying speed at the same time and didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. The divot would smoke for fifteen or twenty seconds, but never appeared to be close to glowing.

Finally after fifteen minutes of doing my best, a section of smoldering dust fell off of the rim, held together and started glowing.

I used the little bitty ember to get the piece smoldering, but it didn't transfer nearly as easy as I would have expected. Once it got going, it smoldered away happily for fifteen minutes before I snuffed it out with some foil.

Did I somehow end up with the world’s hardest piece of chaga? If anyone has any insight or advice, I would appreciate it.

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I haven’t used chaga like that, so I can’t help. I know chaga can get pretty hard though.

However I’ve had great results doing similar stuff with horse hoofs fungus. The whole thing will become a coal. No tinder bundle necessary with some punk wood and twigs.

Some of it is very hard. It's density changes with in the conk it's self. Some areas of a conk seem light and airy (still solid though) but other areas are very hard and dense. The light and airy areas take spark much better due to the fact those pieces must have lots microscopic air chambers that aid in combustion.

Core areas of chaga have the airy material, and the outer areas seem to be more dense. There is usually a color difference associate with the density as well. The airy material is usually a rich redish/orangish brown with the harder material having a lighter yellowish brown hue to it.

It seems that your chunk of chaga is small. Small pieces are usually harder because they don't have much of a "core" so to say. They mainly consist of "edge" material which is that hard and less pithy.

I have also found that the "quality" of chaga can vary from conk to conk

The light and airy areas take spark much better due to the fact those pieces must have lots microscopic air chambers that aid in combustion.

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Thanks @Primordial . That makes a lot of sense. After failing to ignite the dust via friction, I tried dropping some flint and steel sparks into the dust pile, but even that fine powder wouldn't catch them. While I was trying, I noticed sparks landing and smoldering on the conk itself. Even with strong forced oxygen, they would only smolder for a second or two before going out.

The video I shot doesn't show them well on the light colored material, but here's ten seconds of footage where you can see it happening on a section that was charred by the spindle. They seemed to land and get started just as readily on the light stuff though.

I broke this chunk off of a larger piece, and still have a few others left, so I'll see if any of it is softer.

You can see how the edges where it was attached to the host tree are yellowish in hue which are remnants of the poor quality layer. When I get home, I'll try to take and post some photos up showing what different types of chaga innards look like.

A book, Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age, gives intriguing info on drilling artifacts. These are from the Scandinavian Mesolithic and include a stone hand-rest, antler hand-rest, and a bow made of rib. The book’s illustration shows a hand-rest in the shape of our beach pebbles.

Realized I forgot to post some friction fire practice here! It's been a while since I worked on the bowdrill. Definitely felt a little rusty, but I think the main issue with this set was not taking more time in the construction phase to shape everything for best performance, and also trying to troubleshoot it when the "feels like" temperature was nearing 100*F, a bit humid, and my brain was probably getting too warm.

I spent my first attempt getting some stuff dialed in (drilling through the hearth completely). Had to deal with a cracked and too-short hearth on the second attempt, and then started having a lot of spindle popping out on the third attempt, which may have been fatigue and heat more than anything. Regardless of the lack of ember, I was very happy to have gotten out and tried.

Maple spindle and hearth harvested at the start of the walk, miscellaneous thick bark for the bearing block, random branch and cheap synthetic cord for the bow.

Great to see you practicing again @rsnurkle ! I like that miscellaneous thick bark bearing block.

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Great to practice again . I first tested this kind of bearing block out in @kcardwel 's all from one tree friction fire challenge, and have since considered them a great option that may not perform as well as manmade or bone/shell/fatwood bearing blocks, but are a readily found resource that's better than a wood divot filled and refilled with green material.

A book, Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age, gives intriguing info on drilling artifacts. These are from the Scandinavian Mesolithic and include a stone hand-rest, antler hand-rest, and a bow made of rib. The book’s illustration shows a hand-rest in the shape of our beach pebbles.

I tried another no-knife bow drill set this afternoon, but couldn't make it work. I was pretty sure I had an ember on the first attempt, but it stopped smoking after a few seconds. I got lazy with the cordage and pulled strips of willow and maple bark from little knotty saplings with my fingers instead of taking the time to get quality material which resulted in the biggest problem that I ran into.

As the spindle got deeper into the hearth, the friction increased and my crappy unprocessed cordage just kept snapping on me. I tried an attempt with the two-hole method hoping that might do the trick, but I ended up giving up after the spindle jumped the divot.

I think I could have made this set work with more patience and attention to detail, but I was pouring sweat and my attitude was going downhill quickly. On the plus side, building the set with rocks was easier than ever, so practice is paying off in that regard.

I tried another no-knife bow drill set this afternoon, but couldn't make it work. I was pretty sure I had an ember on the first attempt, but it stopped smoking after a few seconds. I got lazy with the cordage and pulled strips of willow and maple bark from little knotty saplings with my fingers instead of taking the time to get quality material which resulted in the biggest problem that I ran into.

As the spindle got deeper into the hearth, the friction increased and my crappy unprocessed cordage just kept snapping on me. I tried an attempt with the two-hole method hoping that might do the trick, but I ended up giving up after the spindle jumped the divot.

I think I could have made this set work with more patience and attention to detail, but I was pouring sweat and my attitude was going downhill quickly. On the plus side, building the set with rocks was easier than ever, so practice is paying off in that regard.

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I can see there's a lot of prep and hard work involved in a no-knife bd. Did you time it by chance as it's something to consider if one might be stranded in the forest for a night without their knife. It takes long enough to make a bd set with a knife locating all that is needed. And it's interesting there's a difference in taking their time to make the set rather than rushing through it, could mean sink or swim out there.
Ahh, cordage, scares the heck out of me. I keep putting it off since my initial trial was a such a flop. It looks like it would take the most time to make in the set too. At this point I'm too keen on getting an ember, that's the excuse I'll use for now while I build my patience and attention to detail
Thanks NW Primate!

Great points/questions@Cedarfire ! Using natural cordage definitely adds to the challenge and can be a hugely frustrating factor, but working with it has become one of my favorite parts of the process.

When I checked the timestamps on the videos (a trick I learned from @rsnurkle) I was surprised to see that from grabbing the cottonwood branch to having the set ready to go took less than an hour. This was due to the spindle already being round, the hearth being soft, and my obviously poor decision not to spend time making better cordage.

Of course I struggled with it for another twenty minutes after that, but with a smooth running set, you could have flames in just a few minutes if you had your prep in order.

I usually budget an hour for a set if I'm using preexisting cordage, or two hours if I'm making my own. A lot depends on what tools and materials I'm using; sets made from sticks are quicker than those made from logs etc; and I'm not counting time for making kindling etc..

I try to make a point not to rush the process though. It usually yields poor results, and doing things in a hurry makes it much more likely that I'll end up losing a finger.

Great points/questions@Cedarfire ! Using natural cordage definitely adds to the challenge and can be a hugely frustrating factor, but working with it has become one of my favorite parts of the process.

When I checked the timestamps on the videos (a trick I learned from @rsnurkle) I was surprised to see that from grabbing the cottonwood branch to having the set ready to go took less than an hour. This was due to the spindle already being round, the hearth being soft, and my obviously poor decision not to spend time making better cordage.

Of course I struggled with it for another twenty minutes after that, but with a smooth running set, you could have flames in just a few minutes if you had your prep in order.

I usually budget an hour for a set if I'm using preexisting cordage, or two hours if I'm making my own. A lot depends on what tools and materials I'm using; sets made from sticks are quicker than those made from logs etc; and I'm not counting time for making kindling etc..

I try to make a point not to rush the process though. It usually yields poor results, and doing things in a hurry makes it much more likely that I'll end up losing a finger.

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The primitive set took less than an hour, awesome NW Primate! Here's to a fire on your next pbd trial (green with envy here).

Good advice about prepping, that's my downfall. Have lost lots of embers rushing around trying to keep the initial fire going. Too focused on making the bd set. Thinking about it now, it might be a good idea to make a list, why didn't I think of that before.

I definitely need to work on my patience and slow down with natural cordage. The first trial with willow cordage quickly burned a dislike for it, although I still hope to get there. Patience has to be one of the biggest hurdles to master when learning primitive fire making, I have to remember it's good for me.

I improvised this set using a yucca fiber cord I’ve been carrying around for awhile. All the other stuff pictured was found on site. I cached the bow and drill socket there for future use. The spindle is willow and the hearth willow root.

I almost gave up on this set, but found the right combination of speed and pressure on the third attempt.

One minute close-up video if you're interested...

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That is an interesting hollowed out end on the red elderberry spindle. We don't have it here and am curious if the dust is from the outer edge or was there pith inside to help create some of that dust? The combination sure gave a nice ember!

That is an interesting hollowed out end on the red elderberry spindle. We don't have it here and am curious if the dust is from the outer edge or was there pith inside to help create some of that dust? The combination sure gave a nice ember!

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The end of this spindle was packed with dust and chunks from the previous hearth, so I hollowed it out with the tip of the knife to cut down on friction in the center hoping it might make it easier.

ArmyMacE sent a box of sticks! They included a broadleaf doc stem, lavender roots, honey locust roots and stems, a stem from a very old hybrid rose, and a hearth of river birch from a tree in his yard. They were all very carefully and clearly labeled.
Thank you Jarrod!

ArmyMacE sent a box of sticks! They included a broadleaf doc stem, lavender roots, honey locust roots and stems, a stem from a very old hybrid rose, and a hearth of river birch from a tree in his yard. They were all very carefully and clearly labeled.
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Thank you Jerrod!

Note, the knife was mine already.

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Glad the package made it! I couldn’t unscramble a few I had set aside with proper identification, so I just sent what was. There was three others that didn’t make to you, when I do get proper identification I’ll add them to a new box.

The lavender root has been close to success a few times, I haven’t gotten to work myself yet. Best of luck!